Digging unearths old structures

Detroit Free Press, 7 June 2002

ORTONA, Fla. -- Archaeologists said Thursday they have discovered the
longest and oldest canals ever found in North America, a system of
channels dug by Indians with wood and shell tools 1,800 years ago.

The two canals, near Lake Okeechobee in southern Florida, together are
7 miles long and show greater complexity in Native American society
than previously suspected, said Robert Carr of the Archaeological and
Historical Conservancy in Miami.

Carr estimated hundreds of Indians lived in the area and used the
tools to dig out millions of yards of sand and soil. This suggests one
level of technological achievement that really has never been honored
before, Carr said.

Previously, archaeologists believed the canals were hundreds of years
more recent.